Today's picture shows a pyramid with a manger scene. Joseph has a Christmas Matins lantern in his hands. Lanterns of this type are used in the Erzgebirge on the way to Christma Matins on the morning of the 25th December.

The Erzgebirgian people celebrate Christmas Eve with a feast, the Neinerlaa (literally: nine different things). There are many rules surrounding the Neinerlaa. It would take too long to mention them all here. But the nine ingredients that gave the Neinerlaa the name have special meanings. The Griene Kließ (raw potato dumplings) will bring money, the lentils or the millet little money, the beetroot red cheeks (i.e. health), the root celery fertility, bread roll milk white clothes (i.e. order in the house). Also important, there must be animals on earth (sausage from the pig), in the air (goose) and in the water (now herring, formerly also carp).

When I decided to make a Neinerlaa puzzle, it quickly became clear there should be a sudoku, because there are nine rows, nine columns, nine boxes and nine numbers. The pioneering role of the components are symbolized in our puzzle by nine kinds of arrows. And to top this, there is sometimes a purple cell border if the sum of the neighboring cells is 9.

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. The grid must fulfill the following rules:

Sudoku X: The both main diagonals contain each the digits 1 through 9.

Sum Search Sudoku: The equal signs mark the relations between the sums of the digits of the cages. In cages there can't be the same digit repeated.

Arrow Sudoku: The digit in a circle is the sum of the digits which are marked with its arrow.

Ratio Sudoku: The fractions between two cells give the ratio of the digits. For example 2/3 can stand for the following combinations of numbers in the adjazent cells: 2 - 3, 4 - 6, 6 - 9, 3 - 2, 6 - 4 and 9 - 6.

Wheel Sudoku: The wheels in the grid contain each 4 values. These values will go in the cells the numbers are in. Doing this the wheels must be rotatated to the right position. (Not mirrored or changed the order of the digits.)

Fill the grid with the digits 1 to 9. The digits represent the height of the skyscraper in each cell. Each row, column and 3x3-box will have exactly one of each digit. The clues along the edges tell you how many skyscrapers you can see from that vantage point.

Upper centre - Min Max Quad Sudoku: The red points in the near of crosses where four cells meet each other show that the cell with the red points is greater then the three other ones. The blue rings in the near of crosses where four cells meet each other show that the cell with the blue ring is smaller then the three other ones.

Upper right - Arrow Sudoku: The digit in the circle is the sum of the digits which are marked with its arrow.

Centre left - Difference Sudoku: The numbers between two cells give the difference of the digits.

Centre - Navigator Sudoku: The arrows show the location of the same number in the previous or next column or row. So for example, the arrow in fifth column means that the same digit is in the sixth column in row 6 - 9.

Centre right - Greater/Less Sudoku: The inequality between each pair of digits must stand correct.